Hi Vince...My main goal at the moment is to lose
the fat around my belly and have a flat stomach. Then I can try and
get an 8 pack like yours! I eat 5 times a days:
Breakfast I have a bowl of porridge with semi skimmed milk & banana.
I also have a cup of tea without sugar.
Midmorning I have an apple or banana.
Lunch I have chicken breast with brown bread or tuna and salad.
Mid afternoon I usually have another piece of fruit-apple or banana.
Evening usually spicy chicken dish with 2 chapatti (like pitta
bread).
I would say my calorie intake is about 1300-1500 a day.
Exercise wise I walk about 2 miles a day and have also have started
to use a skier exercise machine. I always used to measure my waist
around by hips but I found out that I should measure it from around
my belly button and this takes my waist size to 41" which is even
more depressing! What would you suggest I should do to burn off fat
and get that flat stomach? I have told everyone at work that I will
have a six pack by the end of March 2006! At the rate I'm going I'll
be lucky to have a six pack by the end of March 2007!!!
Please help. Thanks. Imtiaz
Imtiaz,
Thank you for the kind
words. I want to give you my best advice, but first let me
make sure I understand where you are at this point. You weigh
170 lbs, but depending on your height, that is probably on the
lighter side. It appears that your problem area is your waist,
which is very typical for us guys since the majority of our fat
cells are concentrated around our midsections. Here are some
ideas to get you on the right track, but I want to be realistic
about this since you will most likely not get the six pack that
you're looking for by March of this year. You will
however be on the right track to melting away the excess around your
waist giving you a much smaller and flat stomach. Then, with
continued diet and proper exercise you can then work toward getting
that true six pack looking midsection. Let me tell you that it
didn't happen for me overnight. In my case, I had to do a
lot of resistance training to develop my abdominal muscles,
getting them to appear the way that they now do. Here is what
I suggest to begin your program:
1. Keep doing the
5 - 6 small to moderate portion meals/snacks on a daily basis.
2. Drink lots
of water throughout the day, the more in, the more out.
3. Your current
calorie count isn't bad, just make sure that you are giving
your body enough protein in order to sustain a higher ratio of
muscle to fat. More lean muscle mass promotes more
efficient utlizing of fat burning fuel. In other words,
you'll burn fat at a much higher rate.
4. You should consider
eating mostly protein based meals, i.e. chicken, tuna, fish, egg whites
or egg beaters, cottage cheese, soy nuts, turkey breast,
lean ground meat, and whey protein supplements such as
protein shakes or bars.
5. Continue regular
exercise by incorporating a mix of resistance weight training
with free weights and machines, preferably 3x week.
Concentrate on doing each body part once per week, splitting the
workout up with doing 2 or 3 body-parts per each workout.
Do a faster paced workout, with medium to high repetitions on each
set.
6. Incorporate 30-45
min of cardiovascular exercise preferably 2 - 3x week.
7. You can also choose
a fat burning supplement that fits your needs. I suggest doing
some research or consult with a physician before doing so though.
8. Watch your overall
sodium intake each day, since this will cause your body to retain
excess water. I suggest using some low-sodium foods such as
your tuna or certain foods that it is available.
9. Train your abs 2x
week, using some resistance one day, and higher reps the other.
I will usually do 2 - 3 sets of different movements hitting each
region of the abs, lower/middle/upper abs. You can check out
any good fitness magazine that features an ab workout to get some
ideas of specific movements. My favorite's are hanging or
seated leg raises, incline crunches, kneeling rope pulldowns.
10. Set short term
goals in reaching your final ultimate six pack ab goals. You
can do it! Just monitor yourself along the way, since you may
have to tweak your workouts and/or your diet in order to get to your
final goal, which you WILL reach with a lot of desire and
dedication. Remember, that when it comes to abs a good strict
diet is more than half the battle.
Good luck, and go get
those six pack abs!
PS. another
pointer is to always have your food, such as chicken breasts
prepared ahead of time so that it doesn't become inconvenient to
have to actually cook everytime that you want to eat. I will
bake a whole tray of chicken breasts at one time, and keep them in
the refrigerator as I just pull from that batch and prepare
different ways each time. As soon as I'm about done with what's
left...I'm onto another. If you have to carry around
your food in plastic containers, then do so in order to stick to
your own diet. Don't subject yourself to having to eat in
restaurants too often, since it is much more efficient in preparing
your own food exactly the way that you want to, and since the
temptation is way too hard to handle at a restaurant.
Vince Home 
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